YES! You can observe Lent and celebrate Easter while you're sheltered at home and churches are closed. For millennia Christians have worshipped at home, with minimal or no access to church services, and the light of their faith still burned strong. This is the first in a series of Easter 2020 Solutions, to support you during this challenging time.
If you can't get to church, then bring the church into your home by creating or expanding a sacred space in your home with a home altar or home shrine, adorned with your favorite icons and figurines, where you can offer your daily prayers, along with candles and incense. Daily devotions and meditation before your shrine will make this sacred space a divine "fireplace," shedding comforting warmth and light and preparing you for Holy Week and Easter at home.
Easter 2020 Solution #2
"Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them."
In times of hardship or persecution, Christians have had to worship privately and secretly - like the millions of Christians in present-day China who worship in house churches to avoid persecution by the Communist government. While so many of us are sheltered and churches are closed, it is a good time to create your own small community of faith - family members or a small number of fellow parishioners near to your home who can gather at your house for daily prayers and hymns, taking turns to share readings from scripture and the lives and writings of the saints. Of course, to keep safe be sure to follow CDC recommendations about social distancing and a limit of 10 people.
Easter 2020 Solution #3
Charity is at the heart of our faith. Even if we are sequestered, all around us we can still find opportunities for giving - a word of thanks and a reaching out in prayer for the protection of our healthcare givers, pharmacists, grocers, police and firemen who at their own personal risk are at the front line of the battle our nation is fighting against this virus. And now is the time to show compassion and support to those who are isolated, elderly or sick, and can't get out. Share inspirational messages and gifts of faith with them today - it will help them, and it's just plain "good spiritual therapy" that will take your focus off your own struggles.
Easter 2020 Solution #4
While so many of us find we have extra time as we are sheltered in our homes, it's good to remember to keep a different kind of Lenten fast and abstinence; now is not the time to succumb to the fascination of 24/7 headlines or to heed the tug of social media at our sleeves. British columnist Clare Foges compared our obsession for all corona-virus-related news and social media posts to "glugging saltwater to release ourselves of thirst: initially comforting, ultimately counterproductive." Exactly - water that creates even more thirst, and ultimately kills you.
Our current situation gives us a unique opportunity to strengthen our devotional and prayer life. And if we take advantage of this, we will achieve the fruits that Saint Paul promises us in this simple formula for peace:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."(Philippians 4:6-7)
Easter 2020 Solution #5
While there is one icon in one house..."
While filming a BBC documentary about the Romanian Orthodox Church in the 1970's, Ronald Eyre interviewed a group of Romanian laymen preparing the site for a new church for their parish, and posed the hypothetical situation: "Think of an awful accident where all the priests and all the bishops are taken away - would Christianity die?" They answered emphatically, "No! While there is one icon in one house, the faith will live."
At this unusual time in our country, when most churches are closed for Holy Week and Easter and we are sequestered at home, we may feel we're in the position that Eyre described. So it is good to take the Romanians' answer to heart and to ask: why have icons held such a central part in the lives and faith of so many Christians?
To discover more about the 2,000-year history of this unique form and its role in the Church, view this inspiring and informative new seven-minute free online video created by iconographer Brother Simeon Davis.
Easter 2020 Solution #6
Now is the perfect time to get better acquainted with the saints. We have the time, and we certainly need to remind ourselves of "holy role models" of human excellence - and even more, to prayerfully invoke their blessing and help in such difficult times. As always, the saints are standing by, ready to come to our aid!
One bright side to the internet is the huge number of saints' lives you can easily find by googling "lives of Catholic saints" or "lives of Orthodox Christian saints" for text pages, and searching the same terms in youtube for videos.
Our own website includes biographies of many saints. Visit our Did You Know Section.
Easter 2020 Solution #7
"Feed your faith and your fear will starve." Rev. Max Lucado
With churches closed for Holy Week and Easter, all of us can use all the inspiration we can get. Iconographer Brother Simeon Davis has created this new nine-minute video as a Holy Week offering.
Featuring famous narrator Alexander Scourby's renowned reading of the Gospel account of the Passion of Christ, Brother Simeon walks the viewer through the sacred events of Holy Week, illustrated with his own icons and classic icons in the Byzantine style from Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, Russia, and Israel.
We hope you are inspired by this moving video, and we encourage you to share it with other sheltered Christians at this holy time.
Watch the video here.
